Chapter 36: The Hunt III

  Luo Ling froze for a moment, his eyes narrowing in disbelief as he spotted Li Kai striding down the road toward the village.

  Of all the places, why would he head back there?

  Anyone with even a shred of sense would avoid a village where every soul wanted their head on a pike. Yet here he was, walking with an unsettling calmness as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

  Was he homesick or had he gone mad?

  Luo Ling’s instincts screamed at him that something was off. While he didn’t know Li Kai that well, the information he’d gathered painted a clear picture of the man’s character.

  Li Kai wasn’t reckless. He was a man who knew how to weigh his options, someone who understood the value of retreat when the odds weren’t in his favor. The only reason Luo Ling had bested him before was because Li Kai had underestimated him—mistaking his young age for inexperience.

  But this? A man like that walking back to a village full of people who wanted him dead?

  This wasn’t bravery. This wasn’t desperation.

  This was something else entirely.

  Luo Ling nocked an arrow onto his bow and drew the string taut. An unsettling sensation prickled at the edge of his perception—an indescribable shift in Li Kai’s demeanor. If he had to put it into words, it would be that Li Kai no longer seemed like the man he thought he was.

  Without a word, he let loose the arrow and watched silently as it sailed in the cover of the night.

  The arrow whizzed through the air with precision. But just as it was about to find its target, Li Kai’s body twisted unnaturally, bending sideways at an angle no human should be capable of.

  It was as if his bones had melted, his frame morphing with a snake-like fluidity.

  If he hadn’t known better, Luo Ling would have thought Li Kai was a master of the deadly martial art: Way of the Gui Serpent.

  He had exchanged a few moves with Li Kai before and knew that man was not this capable. What changed?

  The arrow missed its mark and disappeared into the night. Luo Ling straightened his back and narrowed his eyes. His pointy glare did not leave Li Kai’s strangely deformed body.

  “Who?” It was a hoarse, scratchy voice, nothing like Li Kai’s. As he straightened himself from the unnatural angle he had bent into to avoid the arrow, faint popping sounds echoed from his joints, adding an eerie edge to the moment.

  “Who are you? Show yourself.” Li Kai demanded, turning around.

  Luo Ling narrowed his eyes and didn’t make a sound, silently upping his guard. He had taken note of the abnormality that was the current Li Kai. A few things stood out as he observed him.

  First, the Li Kai before him seemed to have suffered some damage to his throat, making his voice hoarse and scratchy. The second, and more obvious one, the Li Kai standing in front of him seemed to have forgotten his battle instincts.

  Even a novice warrior would instinctively roll away when ambushed and seek cover. Yet the man before Luo Ling remained rooted in place, making no effort to hide and instead demanding the attackers reveal themselves.

  The Li Kai he fought that day was not this dumb.

  Nocking another arrow onto the bow, he aimed at Li Kai’s chest.

  Luo Ling didn’t know what had happened to this hunter and he didn’t care. He was there to solve the problem that was Li Kai, not to uncover some mystery.

  Li Kai whipped his head where Luo Ling stood and made a mad dash at him.

  “There you are.” His scratchy tone made the latter wince.

  However, Luo Ling had no time to care as Li Kai pounced at him, his right hand swinging a rusty knife with alarming speed. Luo Ling reacted swiftly, lightly kicking off the ground to dart out of the hunter’s line of attack in a zigzag pattern, his movements precise and fluid.

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  Only after pulling as much distance as possible between them did he stop to observe.

  Li Kai was waving his hands wildly in the darkness, where Luo Ling had stood a few seconds before, his face twisted in anger.

  “Where did you run off to, rat?”

  Luo Ling swiftly took cover behind a tree and furrowed his brows at the fumbling Li Kai.

  Was it a fluke?

  Li Kai seemed to know where he was and rushed over.

  Could he see in the dark as well? Do external martial arts have such a benefit? Luo Ling had never practiced the said martial arts nor had he ever enquired about the details. Hence, he was not clear about the more miscellaneous benefits it offered.

  But soon, Luo Ling fell into confusion.

  Li Kai didn’t give chase. Luo Ling had purposely darted behind a tree, intending to use the uneven terrain to his advantage. If Li Kai had followed, it would have been the perfect opportunity to entangle him and gain the upper hand. Yet this plan fell through as the man, instead of following him, simply stood where he had been before and hurled insults.

  Surely, if Li Kai could see in the dark, he’d have seen Luo Ling rushing behind the tree.

  Luo Ling understood his limitations. While he was quick, he hadn’t yet reached the level where his movements were imperceptible. It was unlikely that Li Kai had missed it.

  And yet, he acted oblivious, like he had not seen anything. Could he truly not see in the dark? Or was this an elaborate bait to lure Luo Ling out?

  The uncertainty gnawed at him, but Luo Ling remained patient, silently observing, his expression unchanging.

  “Where are you hiding, rat? Show yourself!”

  Li Kai’s hoarse voice cut through the stillness, but Luo Ling didn’t waver. He stayed rooted, waiting for the perfect moment.

  Finally, Li Kai turned his back, oblivious—or pretending to be. It didn’t matter. Luo Ling seized the opportunity he had been waiting for.

  The bowstring was pulled taut as Luo Ling took aim at the maddened hunter’s back where his heart was supposed to be.

  But…

  “Found you! So that’s where you’re hiding.”

  Exactly as before, Li Kai spun around abruptly and charged at Luo Ling, his face twisted into a wide, frenzied grin.

  “Tch!” Luo Ling clicked his tongue in mild irritation, his movements swift and fluid as he zigzagged deeper into the group of trees by the roadside. With the dome of inner breath enveloping him, he no longer relied on his eyes to navigate. The world around him was vivid in his perception, even in complete darkness.

  As he retreated, a familiar sensation coursed through him—[Weakness] had activated. In his inner breath-assisted vision, the knife clutched tightly in Li Kai’s right hand began to emit a faint, ominous glow.

  “Huh!?”

  Luo Ling couldn’t help but exclaim in momentary surprise. Luckily, his voice was soft and it didn’t attract a reaction from the frenzied hunter.

  Weakness was a blessing he had gained upon upgrading [Archery]. Like Penetration, its inner workings were a mystery to him—something beyond his comprehension. What he did know, however, was how to activate it and the subtle cues to look for when it sprang to life.

  By description, it was a blessing that revealed a target’s weak spot when observed for a period.

  A human’s weak spots were typically concentrated around the heart and head. Luo Ling had tested it on Xiao Ru before and confirmed its accuracy—these vital areas were always highlighted when [Weakness] activated.

  Now, Luo Ling couldn’t help but wonder—why was Li Kai’s weak spot in that rusty knife? Why did none of his other body parts glow? What secret did it hold? Could striking the knife truly end the hunter's life?

  The thought was intriguing, but Luo Ling dismissed it as quickly as it came. He wasn’t one to abandon proven facts in favor of an unknown variable, no matter how compelling.

  Humans died when their hearts were destroyed. That was an undeniable truth he could rely on.

  Thus, even as [Weakness] highlighted the knife as a vulnerable spot, Luo Ling decided to stick to what he understood. He’d aim for the heart, the one place he knew for certain would bring this fight to an end.

  On a side note, Luo Ling now had a solid guess about how Li Kai was pinpointing his location so accurately.

  The hunter’s movements, erratic as they seemed, followed a pattern. It wasn’t random intuition or mere luck guiding him—there had to be more to it.

  He just needed one more experiment to turn his guess into a fact.

  Nimble fingers held the string taut, pulling it back with practiced precision. The bow curved gracefully into a half-moon, steady and ready to strike.

  The arrow sitting upon it lacked the metal tip that Luo Ling’s usual hunting arrows had. He had a limited number of those arrows and couldn’t use them randomly.

  As Luo Ling had anticipated, the instant he took aim, Li Kai locked onto his location and charged in his direction. The corners of Luo Ling’s lips curled into a faint smirk as he effortlessly slipped out of sight, vanishing into the shadows.

  “Slippery bastard!” Li Kai snarled; his voice laced with frustration. “When I catch you, you’ll regret the day you were born!”

  Luo Ling made a wide detour, circling around Li Kai, and silently returned to the road. His suspicions were all but confirmed—Li Kai’s uncanny ability to locate him, even in total darkness, was tied to some form of emotional or intent-based perception.

  Whatever transformation Li Kai had undergone, it had granted him an acute sensitivity to emotions, particularly negative ones. Anger, hostility, fear—they were like beacons in the dark, guiding him to his prey.

  Understanding this, Luo Ling adjusted his strategy. With calm precision, he replaced the practice arrow on his bowstring with a hunting arrow, its metal tip gleaming faintly in the moonlight. Now that he knew the root of Li Kai’s newfound abilities, all that remained was to exploit the gaps in his perception and finish the task he had set out to accomplish.